Siemens CEO... "US Workers Lack Skills"

[True Earthling]

There are 1877 current jobs available at Siemens USA... http://www.usa.siemens.com/en/jobs_careers/us_jobs.htm

A mismatch in the US labour market between the skills of unemployed people and the jobs available is making it hard for some companies to find the right staff despite an unemployment rate of more than 9 percent, one of the country’s largest manufacturing employers has warned.

“There’s a mismatch between the jobs that are available, at least in our portfolio, and the people that we see out there,” Mr Spiegel told the Financial Times. “There is a shortage (of workers with the right skills.)”

He said Siemens was having to invest in education and training to meet its staffing needs, including apprenticeship programmes of the kind it uses in Germany.

His comments, made before Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, visits a Siemens plant in Ohio on Monday, suggest better education and training could help reduce the persistently high US unemployment rate. http://www.cnbc.com/id/43459947

[Taverner]

1. Well yeah, destroy public education and make college unaffordable and that shit happens

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Don't confuse education with training.

Training teaches you how to do something.

Education causes you to ask, "Why the fuck should I do THAT?"

We neet tech schools to promote the former.

We need to destroy education in order to prevent the latter.

[Taverner]

8. Yes, but without 'education', training is like teaching a dog to use a woodchipper...

You know, that whole 'literacy' thing where the trainees can look up an answer to a question..

[Fumesucker]

2. Hmm.. I wonder if they need engineers?

See this thread for a fairly thorough deconstruction of the "we don't have enough engineers" meme.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4884737

[HughBeaumont]

4. "better education and training could help reduce the persistently high US unemployment rate"

Well, that and the wealthy loosening their frogs-ass-tight purse strings and START PAYING THEIR EMPLOYEES A LIVING FUCKING WAGE!!!!

It's cost, not knowledge. "Knowledge" is right-wing dog whistle for "expensive". It's cost, not knowledge. "Knowledge" is right-wing dog whistle for "expensive". It's cost, not knowledge. "Knowledge" is right-wing dog whistle for "expensive". It's cost, not knowledge. "Knowledge" is right-wing dog whistle for "expensive". How many times does this have to be repeated before it sinks in? I don't know. How many times? It's cost, not knowledge. "Knowledge" is right-wing dog whistle for "expensive". It's cost, not knowledge. "Knowledge" is right-wing dog whistle for "expensive". It's cost, not knowledge. "Knowledge" is right-wing dog whistle for "expensive".

[Wilms]

5. The skill set Americans lack is working for $10 hour and stacking people in a small apt.

I call BS on Spiegal.

No Thanks for Everything, June 14, 2011

http://www.hd.net/blogs/2011/06/coming-up-on-tuesday-june-14-2011/

[somone]

6. And they're fat and lazy as well?

:sarcasm:

[Larkspur]

7. I have a college education and so so many of my fellow colleagues who were laid off in 2008

It's not education. It's the greed of the wealthy that is keeping the unemployment high.

[Scout]

9. i am an old fuddy duddy, i admit....

but i remember in the 90s, working at a book manufacturer, we had to teach young adults how to read and use a ruler! how to add fractions, how to convert fractions to decimals ... basic math that you should know by junior high. it was ridiculous!

[daggahead]

10. Is it a "skill" to ...

... only want $12,000/year? Maybe that's what he means.

:sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

19. Bingo.

[Kolesar]

11. Manufacturing training would include: Bills-of-materials, quality systems, lean, tolerances, ...

Those are good careers, but you have to study.

[bahrbearian]

12. Dosen't Siemens stand to make a Boat load of money from

The 38 billion we are going to give the Nuclear industry?

[Le Taz Hot]

13. I just signed up and registered

so I could find the 2 wonderful opportunities in my area. Sales. Like I don't get 5,000 offers a day for "jobs" in sales.

[SoCalDem]

14. Companies must have forgotten that it used to be common practice to

train your own workers.. That's what entry-level positions were all about..

Companies did not expect their employees to come pre-trained.

[Brickbat]

17. Yup.

[awoke_in_2003]

26. +1. nt

[gkhouston]

15. "including apprenticeship programmes of the kind it uses in Germany"

Do German workers also lack skills? Or is it just that in Germany they still train their employees, as US firms commonly did a few decades ago?

[surrealAmerican]

22. That sentence really pops out, doesn't it?

So, they're quite willing to train their own workers in Germany, but in the US, they want somebody else to do it for them.

[MakingANoise]

16. Don't tell the GOP

they are too busy cutting education :(

[Evasporque]

18. Siemens CEO has huge salary....

And he wants a bigger one.

[Habibi]

20. "having to invest in education and training to meet its staffing needs"

The horror.

[theaocp]

21. No shit.

Aren't there some visas that could be extended to get highly-trained folks that can be abused at their master's whim? I mean, c'mon!

[Nailzberg]

23. That's funny. I was overqualified for my position at Siemens and hired through a temp agency.

Held onto me for the full six months then cut me loose so they wouldn't have to hire me from the agency. I imagine I was replaced by another overqualified college grad.

They really have no problem finding qualified workers. They have a problem paying them.

[yella_dawg]

24. US workers -do- lack skills.

Primarily the skills needed to survive on ninety cents per day.

[Yavin4]

25. Yes, He Means The Skills To Work Like A Dog on a Pauper's Wage

That skill.

[guitar man]

27. You know what

Fuck this goddamn guy. After over 30 years of abuse of the American work force by his class this asswipe has a lot of goddamn gall. I can remember back in the mid-late 70s, pre Reagan when they started their infowar about how "lazy and greedy" the American worker was, then when Reagan hit they kicked it into overdrive, and it's never really gone away. "Greedy".....the fucking nerve of these bastards.

So here we sit 30 years later, the one note Johnnys at the top of the heap may be different but the song they're playing hasn't changed. The full title of the dreck they're droning should be "why won't highly skilled Americans jump at the opportunity to help facilitate my opulent lifestyle for next to nothing?"

Der Spiegel and his cronies can blow it out their ass for all I care :grr: